The legislative decision that legalized abortions, Roe Vs Wade is 36 years old today.
In some ways we've come a long way from the coat hanger abortions that came before Roe V Wade...and in others we are backsliding closer and closer to a return to them.
In the past 36 years...
-Fewer and fewer doctors perform abortions as the practice can be life-threatening, as many doctors have discovered at the wrong end of a "pro-lifer's" gun.
-Various "types" of abortions have been outlawed, chipping away at choice.
-The Mexico Rule (or international gag rule) has been passed (and repealed, and repassed) by various presidents, refusing American aid to international programs that discuss abortion when talking to women about reproductive rights and health, regardless of the fact that control over fertility is one of the keys to financial freedom for women.
-Parental notification laws have limited choice to those over 18
-The morning after pill (Plan B) is not available as widely as it should be, and many women do not understand how to get it, where to get it, or how to take it.
-Abstinence only programs have dramatically misinformed our youth about STD's and pregnancy, leading to a group of young people who are missing critical pieces of reproductive information.
-Some states have so few abortion clinics that it's de facto impossible to get one (South Dakota especially, I'm looking at you)
-Virginia is trying to criminalize miscarriages (again-they tried last year and failed...let's see what happens this year)
-Let's not forget how Bush screwed us one last time on 1/19/08 writing the executive order which allows physicians, pharmacists, and other medical personnel the right to not do their fucking jobs refuse to help a woman who wants information about abortion...AND birth control
I am one of the lucky women who have never found themselves with an unwanted pregnancy (and sadly had to have an abortion procedure-a D&C-when my beloved first child died in utero 10 weeks into my first pregnancy) and thus have never had to make the decision. However, as recently as this month, when Sexyhusband asked me if I would risk sex without a condom before my IUD was inserted, I looked him dead in the eye and said "only if you're okay with me taking Plan B in the morning". There were times during my pregnancy with the LM that I contemplated getting an abortion if any of the scary tests had come back positive.
Yes there are families that want to adopt babies. Let me be cynical for a moment and ask how many special needs babies are getting adopted? Bi-racial and minority babies? Babies with medical problems?
What about the life of the mother? Uppercase Woman is, in her own word, the poster child for later term (aka "partial birth") abortions---one saved her life. Would it make the "pro-lifers" happy if she and her babies had all died? Would that be more "just"?
What about women who become pregnant through the tragedies of rape or incest? Statistically, 1 out of 8 women will be raped at some point in her lifetime, and rape is the most frequently occuring violent crime in the US. I can speak firsthand about how pregnancy can be a horrible, sucky, miserable, painful, crappy 40 weeks of your life. The fact that I desperately wanted a baby was often the only thing that made the experience worthwhile. I can only imagine the emotional damage had I gone through that because of a rape, to deliver a child that would be a daily reminder of the violent crime committed against my body.
On the 36th anniversary, I am grateful for what choices I still have...and recommit myself to working towards a world where my daughter will have one of the most precious gifts I can give her---choice.
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